News Archive 2014

In an op-ed in the Washington Post, Richard Holbrooke Assistant Professor of Political Science Jeff Colgan reviews OPEC's role in world oil markets and explains where the blame should be placed for rising oil and gasoline prices.

On SFGate.com Catherine Lutz, the Thomas J. Watson, Jr. Family Professor of Anthropology and International Studies, reviews Ian Morris' book "War: What Is It Good For?" and shares why some readers will find themselves with more questions than answers.

Catherine Lutz, the Thomas J. Watson, Jr. Family Professor of Anthropology and International Studies, says in an op-ed to the Providence Journal, "it is as if the entire population of my city, Providence, and many of its suburbs, had been wiped away."

Addressing the latest GM recall, Catherine Lutz, the Thomas J. Watson, Jr. Family Professor of Anthropology and International Studies, says: "the actual safety impact of the GM recalls may be that they'll further erode confidence in the United States' car-based culture."

"The Bagram Prisoner Campaign," by photojournalist Asim Rafiqui, is the latest exhibit of the Art at Watson intiative, currently on display at the Watson Institute. Through a series of 23 portraits, Rafiqui brings to light the plight of the relatives of the 40 Pakistani citizens being held indefinitely at the Bagram detention center in Afghanistan. The images are intended to illustrate the cost of U.S. policies of indefinite detention without trial. On view Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., through August 29. Main lobby.

In the Boston Globe, Visiting Fellow Stephen Kinzer reminds us that borders between nations have always been fluid, shifting as power ebbs and flows -- witness the Sykes-Picot Line, the Durand Line, and shifting borders across Africa. While it's important to respect the sanctity of borders, he says, it would be dangerous to reject change, especially in the case of Iraq and Syria. "Accepting new borders," he writes, "can be less destabilizing than fighting to defend old ones."

Timothy Edgar, visiting fellow at the Watson Institute, comments on the disclosure of a classified 2010 legal certification and other documents that indicate the NSA has been given a far more elastic authority than previously known.

Watson Postdoctoral Fellow Amy Austin Holmes, along with forty of the most prominent academics working on Middle East studies at universities across the United States, signed an open letter to the Obama administration this month about the deteriorating situation in Egypt.

James Green, professor of history and brazilian studies and director of the Brazil Initiative, comments on the lack of girls playing soccer in Brazil. "“It’s not that Brazilians think women shouldn’t play sports,” says Green. “It’s that they don’t think soccer is the appropriate sport…. It’s the man’s domain.”

Writing on the influential national security law blog Lawfare and the new tech news blog Re/code, Visiting Fellow Timothy Edgar comments on the Supreme Court's decision in Riley v. California, requiring warrants for searches of cell phones incident to arrest.

An article on previously failed climate change talks cites a recent paper co-authored by Watson Faculty Fellow J. Timmons Roberts. The paper suggests a compromise that turns to 17 members of the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate for emissions reductions.

Stephen Kinzer, visiting fellow at the Watson Institute, writes that the recent explosion of militant power in Iraq is an example of how U.S. foreign interventions' short-term success can dissolve into long-term failure.

Catherine Lutz, co-director of the Watson-based Costs of War project, said on Al Jazeera America that the estimated $4 to 6 trillion -- for military operations, veterans' medical costs, social programs for veterans' families, and interest on money borrowed to fight the war -- hasn't done much good. "It seems to have bought us trouble in the United States, and it's definitely bought the people of Iraq a very different kind of country -- one that's quite fallen apart."

An article on air pollution in India cites research by Andrew Foster, professor of economics, that used data from 113 pollution monitoring stations in Delhi and surrounding areas to show that mandated use of CNG in commercial vehicles and relocation of polluting industries led to an improvement in lung function among adults.